Talking with Bertinelli recalls the many roles she's played on hit TV shows -- her 1975 debut as teenager Barbara Royer on the long-running series "One Day at a Time," then later as co-star Gloria on "Touched By an Angel." Now she plays Melanie Moretti, a Los Angeles ex-pat who chooses to start life over by settling in Cleveland.

Laughter bubbles naturally as she speaks, though her candor is often sober. Bertinelli's conflicts with food are well documented, through her memoirs, "Losing It" and "Finding It," appearances on talk shows, fitness DVDs and her current role as spokeswoman for Jenny Craig. And her appreciation for food is deeply rooted. Growing up in an Italian-American family, she says some of her fondest memories involve cooking in her grandmother's basement kitchen alongside her mother.

"Food was always so important in my family – watching my nonnie and mom cooking, and helping," she said by cell phone, while her husband, Cuyahoga Falls native Tom Vitale, was driving the couple home on a Southern California highway. "The food was real, and not processed, everything was fresh. It was the way your body is supposed to be nourished. And it wasn't just eating to getting over a feeling you're afraid to feel. You ate because you were hungry, and you were with family, and you were nourishing your body."

Which is why "One Dish at a Time" is a pastiche of heirloom recipes from her own family tradition, intermingled with contemporary dishes she has collected and developed into her own. It's also sprinkled with several Dutch- and Indonesian-inspired recipes from her former mother-in-law, Eugenia -- Eddie Van Halen's mom.

Did she consciously alter family recipes or select them to fit into the healthful sensibility that has become her way of life, after losing roughly 50 pounds?

"There's a wide variety -- some of them are super-healthy, things you can eat freely, and others are super-indulgent that require portion-control," she says. "But that's how I believe you should be eating: I really don't think you should deny yourself anything. You can do it for a while, but eventually that just leads to bingeing – at least, that's how I'd find myself handling it."

If you allow yourself some indulgences, Bertinelli says, "you won't crave them that much."

"I wanted the variety of recipes, and stories, in there because I wanted people to know how important food has always been to me all my life – and I wasn't going to be afraid of it anymore," she add. "Food really isn't the enemy."

Through her marriage to Vitale and her hit series -- with co-stars Betty White, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick -- Bertinelli says she has developed strong affection for Northeast Ohio.

"Because it feels like where I grew up, in Delaware. It feels familiar to me – plus there are all the Italians! Akron and Cleveland feel like home to me, and when I'm there with Tom's family it feels like my childhood. Sweet people."

She also has some sense of what the attention "Hot in Cleveland" brings to an area that Hollywood typically treats as "fly-over" territory, nothing more than land stretched between the coasts.

"I mean, I do and I don't," Bertinelli admits. "I've lived in so many states across America, I know what life is like outside of New York and LA. I love Ohio – and it's really nice to give a little love letter to Cleveland."

Her brief visit to the area, less than 20 hours total, means at least one big disappointment.

"I won't have time to eat at the wonderful restaurants Cleveland has – I've heard so much about the restaurant scene there. I'm kind of hoping maybe I can slip in a lunch somewhere while I'm town."

She's not sure where. She's a big fan of Michael Symon, she says, and follows Cleveland author Michael Ruhlman's blog and owns some of his books.

But if she had time for one more activity, other than a meal or extra time with family, she'd probably join her husband for a Browns game.

"We ALL want the Browns to start winning," she says, laughing as her husband shouts words of frustration and encouragement as he drives.

"He says he sometimes wonders why he loves them so much. But we love the Browns no matter what. Those men work so hard. But listen, I've been a New Orleans Saints fan for 32 years and look at how long it took for them to make it to the Super Bowl. It's going to happen for [the Browns], too. It's GOING to happen!"

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